The present invention relates to an electronic equipment for vehicle use which has a rotatable operation panel provided on the front, and more particularly, to an electronic equipment for vehicle use which can be properly protected from theft and a panel rotation control method.
Conventional electronic equipments for vehicle use have incorporated various antitheft ideas.
For example, a panel-detachable electronic equipment for vehicle use which has a detachable operation panel provided on the front (a panel-detachable equipment) may be named as a typical one. In order for the panel-detachable equipment to be protected from theft, the user must detach the operation panel before leaving the vehicle for a long time so as to make the equipment unavailable and incomplete. Such a panel-detachable equipment technology is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-252565.
The panel-detachable equipment disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-252565 has an operation panel 102 provided on the front of an equipment body 101 and the operation panel 102 can be detached in the forward direction and reattached in position, as shown in FIG. 14. More specifically, in the panel-detachable equipment shown in FIG. 14, the operation panel 102 is detachably held onto the equipment body 101 through a protrusion 104 and a hook 105. When the user releases the hook 105 and the protrusion 104, the operation panel 102 is detached.
When the operation panel 102 is detached, the equipment is made unavailable and incomplete. Thus, the equipment may hardly be a target for thieves, so that it can be protected from theft effectively.
A maskable electronic equipment for vehicle use which has a rotatable operation panel provided on the front to turn the back face toward the front for antitheft (a maskable equipment) is also well known as another typical one. In order for the maskable equipment to be protected from theft, the operation panel can be rotated to turn the back face toward the front (to mask the operation panel) so that it may appear that there exists no equipment. Such a maskable equipment technology is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.9-123842.
In the maskable equipment disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-123842, an operation panel 202 provided on the front is rotated in sequence as shown in FIGS. 15(a) to 15(c) by a predetermined drive mechanism provided on an equipment body 201 and the operation panel 202 is finally stopped with the back face turned toward the front as shown in FIG. 15(d).
In other words, since the back face of the operation panel 202 is turned toward the front when the maskable equipment shown in FIG. 15 is housed in position in a vehicle, it may appear to thieves that there exists no equipment in the vehicle, so that it can be protected from theft effectively.
Although the panel-detachable equipment described above and shown in FIG. 14 can be protected from theft effectively by physically detaching the operation panel, it must have an opening 103 used to insert/eject a recording medium such as a compact disk (CD) and thus, an effective area for operational keys provided on the operation panel 102 may be reduced.
In addition, since it may be undesirable in some situation to keep the operation panel 102 detached, the panel-detachable equipment cannot be always protected from theft effectively.
On the other hand, the maskable equipment described above and shown in FIG. 15 requires the opening 203 to be provided only on the equipment body 201 in order to insert/eject the recording medium but requires no opening on the operation panel 202, because the operation panel 202 on the front is rotatable. Thus, an effective area for operational keys provided on the operation panel 202 may be advantageously increased.
However, the maskable equipment as shown in FIG. 15 may not be protected from theft effectively. For example, in a region where the maskable equipment is well known, thieves can expect that such an equipment is installed on a vehicle even when the back face of the operation panel 202 is turned toward the front to mask the equipment. In such a situation, the equipment cannot be protected from theft effectively.
As described above, the panel-detachable equipment and the maskable equipment may not be protected from theft effectively by themselves.
The present invention has been made in view of the facts described above and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment for vehicle use which can be properly protected from theft and a panel rotation control method.
To attain the above-mentioned object, an electronic equipment for vehicle use according to the present invention has an operation panel provided on the front, which operation panel can be rotated into a first state (front-face position) where the operation side of the operation panel is turned toward a user and into a second state (back-face position) where the back face of the operation side is turned toward the user, and the equipment includes a holder for detachably holding the operation panel, a drive mechanism for driving the holder to rotate into the front-face position and the back-face position, an engagement mechanism for engagingly supporting the holder and the operation panel, and a release key for releasing the engagement performed by the engagement mechanism.
According to the present invention, the operation panel engagingly supported by the holder can be removed from the holder by operating the release key and then the electronic equipment for vehicle use is made unavailable and incomplete. Thus, the equipment may hardly be a target for thieves, so that it can be protected from theft effectively.
In the electronic equipment for vehicle use according to the present invention, a sensor is also provided to detect that the operation panel is removed from the holder, so that the holder can be automatically rotated into a predetermined position in response to the detection of the fact that the operation panel is removed.
The sensor is composed of, for example, a contact sensor to detect that the operation panel is removed from the holder. When the sensor detects that the operation panel is removed, a controller controls the drive mechanism to rotate the holder into the front-face position. Thus, the equipment can be protected from theft effectively.
In addition, the operation panel can be removed in a particular position other than the front-face and back-face positions and when the removal is detected, the holder can be rotated into the front-face position and then the operation panel can be attached again while the holder is in the front-face position.
In the electronic equipment for vehicle use, the engagement mechanism has such a structure that a first engagement member provided for the operation panel and a second engagement member provided for the holder are forced with springs to fit the operation panel into a predetermined position in the holder and then the operation panel can be removed from the predetermined position in the holder through the release key. More specifically, the engaging structure is such that (i) the operation panel is pressed against the predetermined position in the holder in the direction perpendicular to the operation side for engagement or (ii) the operation panel is engagingly supported by the holder while it is kept slidable in the direction parallel to the operation side. The latter engaging structure includes a first engaging structure for regulating the relative movement between the operation panel and the holder with a first part and a second engaging structure for regulating it so that the engagement can be released with the release key.
Preferably, the release key is provided on the operation panel and is composed of a slide key which can be moved in the direction crossing a groove provided in the panel for engaging with a protrusion formed on the holder.
According to another aspect, the present invention can be construed as a panel rotation control method for an electronic equipment for vehicle use. According to the panel rotation control method of the present invention, in an electronic equipment for vehicle use having an operation panel provided on the front, which operation panel can be rotated into a front-face position where the operation side of the operation panel is turned toward a user and into a back-face position where the back face of the operation side is turned toward the user, a control method for a drive mechanism which drives a holder for detachably holding the operation panel to rotate into the front-face position and the back-face position is provided and the method includes a step of operating the drive mechanism to rotate the holder into a predetermined position where the operation panel can be removed, a step of detecting that the operation panel is removed from the holder, and a step of driving the holder into the front-face position in response to the detection.
According to the inventive method, the rotation step operates the drive mechanism to rotate the holder provided on the front into the predetermined position and the detection step detects that the operation panel is removed from the holder. When the detection step detects that the operation panel is removed, the drive mechanism is operated to rotate the holder into the front-face position. Then, the electronic equipment for vehicle use is made unavailable and incomplete. Thus, the equipment may hardly be a target for thieves, so that it can be protected from theft effectively.
Alternatively, while the operation panel is not removed, the drive mechanism may be operated in response to predetermined conditions to rotate the holder as well as the operation panel into the back-face position. In this case, since the control step stops the holder holding the operation panel with the back face turned toward the front, it may appear to thieves that there exists no such an equipment in a vehicle, so that it can be protected from theft effectively.